Councilwoman Lucy Krakowiak was elected Deputy Mayor of Burien for 2013 at the city council’s first meeting of the year Monday night (Jan. 7).

She was selected on a 3-2 vote by her fellow council members, with Rose Clark, who was deputy mayor last year, receiving the other votes.

Jack Block Jr. nominated Krakowiak, who also voted for herself along with Bob Edgar.

Mayor Brian Bennett nominated Clark.

By the same margin, the council voted prior to that action to proceed with election of Deputy Mayor despite the excused absences of Council members Joan McGilton and Gerald Robison.

City Manager Mike Martin had recommended the delay at the outset of the meeting. Bennett made a motion to do that and Clark seconded the motion,

Krakowiack, noting there had been “lots of (council member) absences throughout 2012,” said election of Deputy Mayor was a “timely item” that should be decided then.

But Clark, repeating arguments made by the current council majority during contentious debates during meetings late last year, noted that historically council members “did not vote on important issues without the full council.

“We have always delayed action unless it was time sensitive, which this is not.” She asked that selection of the new deputy mayor be delayed “out of respect for the missing council members.”

Block countered that he “was absent last year when the mayor and deputy mayor were elected.”

[NOTE: The mayor is selected by the council to serve a two-year term. The deputy mayor is selected annually for a one-year term.]

“The business of the city must go on,” Block continued. Delaying major votes until all council members are present “is a practice we cannot sustain. The business of the city takes precedence.”

Given the current division on the council, it appeared likely that Clark would have been re-elected deputy mayor had the vote been delayed until all members were present at the next meeting.